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Sunday, November 18, 2007
Sunday snippets...
Today, finally, I finished the audio version of Atlas Shrugged . All 52 hours of it. I don't have it in me to do a real review (and they're a dime a dozen anyway!) but suffice it to say that it was engrossing and well worth the time, literarily speaking. I certainly wish every Democrat would read it for an idea of just how dangerous the whole concept of redistribution of wealth will be. The end of the book gets somewhat tedious with a 3 1/2 hour MONOLOGUE from the book's hero, filled with, in my opinion, what gets to be a rather irritating statement and restatement and re-restatement of the same philosophy. Ironically, one of the books main premises is defeated by the assertion that truth cannot coexist with faith. Clearly Ayn Rand was not a believer; nevertheless she stumbled on a portion of God's truth and then tried to divorce that truth from its Creator. Ah...so relevant to the 21st century as well as her own...
Now I'll concentrate on The Thirteenth Tale, one I'm already a couple of hours into.
Eleven days out from surgery, I am continuing to recover well. Walking still isn't terribly comfortable, but it's doable and for that I'm grateful. Tuesday I'll have a post-op visit and get these very annoying staples out of my leg!
Bethany has flown to Virginia to spend the holiday week with Annie and Kristen and their families. Sporting a new, metal-less smile, she is looking forward to spoiling her nieces and nephew and getting a short break from her college studies.
Thanksgiving here will be an intimate little affair of 45 or so. No, I'm not crazy...I just have a family who doesn't want to give up our tradition just because of an incision in my leg, so they are pretty much taking care of everything. My goal is to make ONE dish on Wednesday afternoon, and our guests and the family here will make everything else. The best part will be the company and the actual giving of thanks for our incredible blessings.
My recovery has been spent working on the Christmas shopping from my laptop. I'd say I'm about 75% finished, having gotten caught in the trap of wanting to wait to make sure some of my list isn't just about to go on sale! I have found some amazing deals this year, but that's mainly on toys...and nothing else on my list seems to be attracting the attention of the price-slashers!
This week, I finally had to admit that my 3 week old Dell Inspiron 1520 is a lemon. Ever since turning it on the first time I've had my suspicions that things weren't just right, and three more weeks only confirmed that. So after several hours on the phone this week and with the patient help of my brother, who just happens to WORK for Dell in the tech support arena (how lucky is THAT?), I've arranged for an exchange. I'm not happy...it's a lot of work to transfer and reformat everything onto a new computer, not to mention getting used to the "touch" and quirks of a new machine. But this was a no-brainer: too many things wrong to take the chance of waiting. So the weekend after Thanksgiving I'll be back at my desk fumbling with transfer cables :-(
Oh, and does anyone else hate Windows Vista as much as I do?? I'd been warned, and believe me, all the warnings were correct. Can I just have my XP back, please? Oh, I know, some of you will think that it's just an old woman who doesn't like new stuff. Come on, those of you who know me know that I'm not afraid of technology and innovation. I just happen to think it should work FOR you and not against you!
No surprise, school has rather taken a back seat the past three weeks. We'll do our best to work in two solid weeks after Thanksgiving before taking our Christmas break. I'm happy that our first quarter and the beginning of the second went well so that I don't feel too bad about the interruptions. We fell behind a bit on Tapestry of Grace, so we're just beginning quarter two, but the books are in and I'm almost ready to dive back in there. The kids have been great about keeping up in math, grammar, etc. so nothing's been a total loss.
Friday, The Papa and the boys will go pick out our Christmas trees. This is a tradition for the day after Thanksgiving...we choose and pay for our trees at the Pipe Creek Christmas Tree Farm in the Hill Country and then leave them growing and soaking up the sunshine and water until time to cut and bring them home. Ah...I can smell it now!
And to celebrate this Lord's Day, I share the lyrics to one of my favorite hymns...
O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
that in thine ocean depths its flow
may richer, fuller be.
O Light that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to thee;
my heart restores its borrowed ray,
that in thy sunshine's blaze its day
may brighter, fairer be.
O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
and feel the promise is not vain,
that morn shall tearless be.
O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life's glory dead,
and from the ground there blossoms red
life that shall endless be.
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
that in thine ocean depths its flow
may richer, fuller be.
O Light that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to thee;
my heart restores its borrowed ray,
that in thy sunshine's blaze its day
may brighter, fairer be.
O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
and feel the promise is not vain,
that morn shall tearless be.
O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life's glory dead,
and from the ground there blossoms red
life that shall endless be.
Words: George Matheson, 1882
Music: St. Margaret, Consecration, Wyke
Labels: Books, Health, Holidays, Music, Technology, The Papa
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